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Best movie of this year hands down!

One of my all time favorites.

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

This is one of those 80s movies I watched on VHS over and over again and dearly loved. Dennis Quaid plays a cocky young psychic who's recruited for a scientific study to enter into the dreams of another person. Their hope is to assist people experiencing traumatic nightmares by entering into their dream and helping them overcome whatever it is that is plaguing them. One such dream is a young boy experiencing nightmares about a "Snake Man" tying to kill him. According to this film's "rules," if you die in a dream, you die in real life. One psychic was already "lost" after going into the boy's dream. That sequence is one that was burned itself into my own young brain and was quite scary back in the day. Watching it now, it's still nicely scary and I also very much enjoyed the German Expressionist influenced production design elements of the nightmare sequence, along with the awesomely retro claymation Snake Man. But the main plot is about the president of the United States having nightmares about ending the world with nuclear war and those nightmares are influencing his real-life decisions. Now enter another cocky young psychic, an excellent David Patrick Kelly, who is (SPOILER ALERT) being sent by an evil Christopher Plummer into the dreams of the president and kill him, so it's up to Quaid to stop him. The battle between Quaid and Kelly in a surreal dream world remains suspenseful, exciting, and visually interesting, even if the special effects are wildly dated. "Dreamscape" was directed by underrated director Joseph Ruben, who also directed underrated thrillers like "The Stepfather" and "True Believer," and it was co-written by Ruben and Chuck Russell ("Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors" and "The Mask"), so it's a smart talented group of filmmakers behind the camera. Also behind the camera is cinematographer Brian Tufano, who'd previously shot "Quadrophenia" who would later go on to shoot on films like "Trainspotting" and "Shallow Grave." Top all that off with a surprisingly strong supporting cast that includes Max von Sydow, Eddie Albert as the president, Kate Capshaw, George Wendt, Larry Gelman, Peter Jason, and Chris Mulkey, along with a fun synthesizer heavy score by Maurice Jarre, and you get a highly enjoyably retro 80s sci-fi film that's pretty hard to resist.

Interesting premise, but very weirdly done. A lot of time is spent showing off Dennnis Quaid's great body. Apart from that, the film is slow moving and just plain weird at times and not very convincing either. The effects are not that great, but then again, it is supposed to be a dream world, so anything goes. The plot to kill the President and the means of executing this plan is brilliant, but there are just too many ingredients in this recipe to make it work.

The whole concept of this movie was pretty interesting. The ability to go into someones dream and help them face their nightmares. But the only people who can do it are psychics. At first you are hook to a machine, but if you are strong enough, you can do it without the machine. The cast was pretty good. Dennis Quaid did a decent job. I guess you could say he had an enemy and it was David Patrick Kelly. He was pretty good too. More creepy than anything. The one thing this film lacked was story. It jumped around way too much. Plus it rushed a lot. The whole time you want to see Dennis Quaid in a dream, but when he finally gets into one, the scene doesn't last that long. That is the whole point to the movie; the dreams. The last dream he enters is longer, but still rushed. Maybe they were just afraid to extend the movie, I am not sure. But if done right, it could of been fantastic.

I've always been fond of movies whose topic is about dreams because it provides room for filmmakers to be unpredictable, imaginative, and inventive, both visually and thematically. While Joseph Ruben's Dreamscape carries the oft-used plot of a shadowy government conspiracy regarding a dangerous bureaucrat with powerful ties whose plan is to kill the President of the United States because of fears that he'll weaken our country due to his desires to start nuclear disarmament talks, I thought the movie's bread and butter is the many dream sequences where we go inside the night terrors which plague certain human subjects.Achieving the power to enter the dreams of troubled people who have become so deeply affected they aren't able to function normally in society or in life in general, Dr. Paul Novotny(Max Von Sydow)recruits powerful telepaths to work in his "dream chamber" in an attempt to help those in need of rescue. Alex Gardner(Dennis Quaid) is such a telepath, incredibly gifted and intelligent, but lacks the motivation or care to use them towards the greater good. Reluctantly committing to Novotny's experiments, Gardner finds that helping others recover from the nightmares that haunt them is an exciting, wonderful ability which he gradually embraces and finds rewarding. Meanwhile Bob Blair(Christopher Plummer), responsible for funding Novotny's project, prepares to murder the President(Eddie Albert), believing he's weakening our country due to how he's allowed his nightmares to affect his conduct as the nation's leader. Blair intends to use a psychopathic telepath, Tommy Ray Glatman(David Patrick Kelly in one of his customary smarmy creep roles)to kill the President inside his dream. It'll be up to Alex, and Jane(Kate Capshaw), Novotny's assistant, to stop Blair or else risk equipping a tool of destruction into the hands of dangerous people willing to exploit it's power. A horror novelist, Charlie(George Wendt)risks his life getting vital information to Alex, motivating his cause to upend Blair and his nefarious schemes.I personally found the whole political intrigue rather ho-hum, really enjoying the angle of the ability to enter the dreams to help those in need instead. Alex uses the term "cerebral voyeurs" as their title which I thought was an apt description of us, the viewers, as well. I particularly found the journeys into the nightmares of a little boy tormented by a killer snake man, and the President's nuclear holocaust where the world represents destruction and ruin(..with diseased and dead asking why they were victimized)rather harrowing and thrilling. This, I felt, was where the movie really hums. The sub-plot, however, allows the horrifying idea of how such abilities can be used negatively in the wrong hands, where, initially, the project was for the betterment of the human race. Plummer is the perfect choice to portray a governmental sociopath in a suit and tie, more than willing to kill whoever in order to see that America remains the way he thinks it ought to be. Eddie Albert, albeit a small role, has a pivotal part as the President, particularly when he and Alex are protecting themselves against Tommy, who has become a major threat since being given a place to practice his homicidal tendencies. Quaid is a young hunk, with a charming smile, and has a likable air about him, despite his cocky reckless behavior, with the on-going crisis asking him to grow up and get serious about the developing situation. Capshaw, in a rather thankless role, has the part of attractive love-interest who helps Alex in their mission to stop Blair(..her train car fantasy with Quaid gets quite steamy, interrupted before they get busy). Max von Sydow is the disappointed scientist who thought his work offered the world a benefit, saddened that Blair had other plans for the dream project, with designs on using it to kill instead of heal.When Alex enters the dreams of subjects, we witness a path through a type of multi-colored wormhole. Most of the dreams are shot using soft focus light, with Ruben often incorporating odd angles, creating a disorienting atmosphere that projects a unique universe for which Alex operates within the subjects he wishes to help. The conclusion is nice and tidy, rather predictable, those with malevolent intentions getting their just desserts.You can really see why Quaid became a star, with his looks and talent on display.